i think you were my profile picture once
by redrocketracer
Summary: Craig enters the red racer fandom at the age of 14. The first online friend he makes is donoman, or Clyde Donovan. Who lives a few hours away from him in denver. The two live vastly different lives, but they're the closest things they have to real friends. They're friends for years until something happens and they start to drift apart.


**A/N** : Ah jeez idk where this came from i have so many feelings about cryde right now. I just had to write this. It's my first time writing the ship and idk if it'll be any good. But I hope you all enjoy it.

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Craig first starts using online forums at the age of 14. He's coming home from school one day to catch the newest installment of Red Racer, the new series. The cartoon was what routinely got him through elementary school. The new live action series was easily making his way into his life, too. Craig wasn't the most skilled with his social life. He didn't really have friends. Sure, there was Jimmy and Tweek. But the three of them seldom hung out outside of group settings and public eye. There was a time when Craig had a pretty good reputation, in elementary school. However, as everyone entered middle school he just stopped putting an effort into social functions. He'd much rather play games on his computer and cell phone.

He doesn't know what it was. Something about the way the actress for the Red Racer looks at the Blue Racer made him think they looked really good together. He wondered if the two of them would end up as a couple in the show. As the credits to episode four of Red Racer: Heroes in Space comes to a close, Craig passes the remote to Ruby. It's her turn to watch what she wants. She endures him watching Red Racer with hidden enjoyment in the series.

His mom is putting away dinner and his dad is asleep on the couch. They weren't a talkative family and it's quiet minus the chatter of Ruby's cartoon. Craig steps up the stairs and closes the door to his room. He keeps thinking about the way the actors from Red Racer looked at each other with such a fierceness that made him curious of the future development of their relationship.

Without much thought into it, he types in 'Red Racer and Blue Racers relationship.'

What he finds opens a whole new door to a world he never knew he'd ever enter. It was curiosity, but what he digs up is a goldmine of information. The first thing that shows up is a wiki page reading 'Purple shipping'. Craig blinks as his arrow hovers over the link. He hesitates at first, but before he knows it he's reading all about the hints of the two being potential lovers. How there is a whole fan base for the couple. He scrolls down the entirety of the page and realizes he's always silently thought the relationship between the two to be an epic bromance. The more he thinks about it though, with the way the actors portray their characters and how much chemistry the blue and red racer have even in the cartoon, that it's a shock he didn't think they'd be romantically involved.

When he reaches the comment section he stops.

And it dwells on him that he kind of thinks purple shipping, whatever that is. Is worth looking into more. He's heard of girls who 'ship' people in tv series and stuff. He's been a fan of Red Racer too long to not know of fanfiction and shippings. However, he never thought he'd be interested in that side of it. He's always scoffed at fanfiction and fandom. People online in his video games always joke about it. He's never though he'd end up being someone he's always made fun of. Sure, he loves his show. But he's always just idolized and wished he could be among the constellations like his hero figure.

He clicks the back button, the second link on google is a url that reads 'Red Racer Fanfiction Forum'. Sleepy, dark eyes take in the description in front of him. Craig clicks the link, and a generic forum layout loads up.

The first category is an introduction section.

 _'You're welcome here, fellow racer! Come and introduce yourself!'_

His countenance looks as disinterested as always but he's honestly gotten a taste of something and he wants a bit more of it. He clicks the sign up button, and enters his info. It takes him a few minutes to come up with a user name. Craig's pretty picky with what he goes by online and doesn't want to come up with something generic and stupid. He mulls it over before finally settling on _spaceman._

He waits a few minutes, looking through the forums contents before checking his gmail. The confirmation email is the first thing that shows up in his inbox and he clicks on it.

He doesn't bother setting up a signature or an icon. Without much thought or effort into it Craig posts up a thread in the introduction forum. It's a bit standoffish and probably will be buried under a bunch of other threads in the forum. However, he clicks the 'send button'. Expecting nothing.

 _Uh hey yeah my name is craig and stuff, i'm new. idk I was just curious what your thoughts are on purple shipping I guess._

He doesn't know if it's appropriate for an introduction thread but he doesn't care of think into it. Craig sits back and checks his face book while he's at it. A lot of people like his stuff on there but he seldom looks at it. He's only ever had one profile picture and it's of him covering his face with his hands. It was taken earlier that year while he was at the film club.

He's looking through his news feed when he hears his gmail make a dinging noise. Craig switches tabs and blinks when he realizes he's got quite a few responses to his thread. He types in the url of the forum and checks his post. He's not nervous, just curious.

The first post is by a _pinkracer_

 _ew, purple shipping? I always shipped Red with Pink. Purple is so overrated._

Some responses are similar to that, apparently Pink and Red was a commonly accepted pairing as well. Craig rolls his eyes because ok. It's cool if they like Pink and Red as a ship or whatever, but he honestly just needed some confirmation that he wasn't insane for thinking Purple was something that could happen. When he gets to the second to last post it's by a user by the name of ' _donoman_ '.

 _I ship purple as well. I always loved the interaction between the two in the cartoon. They went to the edge of the universe together. It's kind of hard not to? Plus, the way Colin and Bradley look at each other and act out the characters make it hard to not think something is going on in the new series. But this may not be the most appropriate place to discuss shipping! :O Take it to the shipping category, maybe?_

And that's probably the first rational response Craig gets. With reasoning behind purple having evidence and validity to it. It's not elaborate but it makes Craig want to talk to this user more. Craig never smiles because he has braces and is self conscious, but his lips upturn ever so slightly and he clicks on donoman's profile. As he reads more about him, he realizes he's also 14 and lives in Colorado too. Colorado is a huge state and Craig lives in the buttcrack of no where, but he messages him.

 _Can we just talk about purple through pm? I live in CO too. We're also around the same age, which is cool I guess._

It's about 1 am by now and donoman's offline. Craig realizes he should probably go to sleep because he has school and film club in the morning, so he signs off and slips into bed. It's really strange and kind of shameful, the events of tonight. Especially because his gaming friends usually laugh at the type of things he's looking into. But he turns on his side and shrugs it off. _Whatever_. When does he ever care what anyone thinks?


End file.
